The Second Time Around

Why taking an hour longer on our South Downs walk made it even better.

Date: 14 June 2025

Start: Hassocks Station, 10.00

Finish: Lewes Station, 16.00

Duration: 5h

Distance: 18km

Elevation Gain: 350m

Route Type: Point to Point

Weather: sunny and clear

Companions: CMC hardcore group, plus two guests: Bob, Gill, Peter, Jose, Varvara, Maria and Ivan

I did the same walk as last weekend, and it was even more pleasant. The weather was perfect; if anything, it was me who was still recovering from a Neck Oil-fuelled hangover from Thursday.

I noticed that it took us about an hour longer than last time, but we observed and appreciated so many more things. We started at the famous Jack and Jill windmills, both still fully working. As I got closer, I noticed a piece of donated equipment that came from Bexhill (a coastal town, not to be confused with Box Hill).

We carried on by joining the South Downs Way, then passed Ditchling Beacon, where someone took the opportunity to have a deluxe Dorset ice cream. We crossed a traffic jam (literally, amongst the flashing lights of police cars) and then headed to the first trig point of the day, at 248m above sea level. Here we found some lads using it to dry their tents; they were hiking the entire South Downs Way in one go, sleeping in a tent, and aiming to reach Eastbourne in the afternoon.

We continued until we left the South Downs Way, which carries on south-east, while we headed east towards our planned lunch spot around Blackcap, where we found our second trig point of the day (206m). From there, we passed Mount Harry, then crossed the Greenwich Meridian Trail (GMT), continued past Offham, and headed to Lewes along the River Ouse.

We arrived, passing by the castle, and stopped at the pub for some refreshing drinks and delicious chips, kindly treated by our Bulgarian guests for the day—a much-appreciated detail.